DECLARATION by WOMEN’S COALITION -TURKEY
WE ARE CALLING UPON THE
GOVERNMENT: IMMEDIATELY STOP POLICE VIOLENCE AND THE AGGRESSİVE, THREATENING
AND CONDENSCENDING ATTITUDE AGAINST THE PEOPLE
The peaceful sit-in began to
counter planned construction at the Taksim Gezi park, which would replace one
of downtown Istanbul’s few green spaces with a shopping mall, has evolved into
nationwide demonstrations and people’s resistance as a result of the
brutal police violence and firing with tear gas and water cannons on the protestors.Turkish
PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s disrespect for the universal human rights and related
laws, his condescending attitude and the style of language
he continually uses about the demonstrators, added further to the growing discontent and demonstrations in a very short
period of time.
This attitude, which have further
narrowed down the space for basic rights and freedoms and which that continues
to ignore people’s right to assembly and participation has caused people to
take refuge on the streets in thousands of numbers. Regretfully, the Prime Minister
continues to view every differing views, protests and demonstrators as ‘secret
enemy forces’,’marjinals’, and as ‘traitors’ and thus reflects an extreme
intolerance for any form of dissent. He has also encouraged the society to
divide as two opposing poles by calling the demonstrators as ‘others’ with
hidden interests to topple his government. We believe on the contrary that
Taksim Gezi Park resistance offers a good opportunity to listen and to
construct a much stronger peace and social solidarity environment in Turkey.
The government needs further to withdraw from an attitude and from using a
terminology that continually criminalize the peaceful demonstrators.
The street demonstrations and people’s
demands are regarded by the government as criminal and unlawful, justifying for
the growing police brutality. If people’s demands are continued to be ignored
and violence against the demonstrators sustained, we believe that the damage
will escalate further, more innocent people will get hurt, and, the state of
things may reach a point of no return. We would like to remind that all
governments gain legitimacy not only by the number of votes they receive, but,
from the degree of respect they pay to basic human rights and freedoms and to
their protection. In this connection, we invite, primarily, the Prime Minister
and the members of his government, to act responsibly in securing human and
individual rights by the removal of the police from all civil demonstration
locations, stopping police brutality that has been exercised against the
people, and, eliminating all excessive use of the very aggressive,
separationist and condenscending language style and the attitude that appears to have been widely adopted
at the highest level of the government.
It should be remembered that it is the
prime responsibility of the state to secure and protect basic human rights and
freedoms, under all conditions.
WOMEN’S COALITION –TURKEY
www.kadinkoalisyonu.org